KT, South Korea’s leading fixed-line telecom carrier, signed a 360 million won ($380,000) outsourcing contract last week with a North Korean agency to develop six smart software programs.

A Ministry of Unification official yesterday said the deal between KT and Samcholli General Corp. was struck last Thursday as planned (see the front page of The Korea Times, July 13 edition).

“Samcholli agreed to develop six computer programs in such fields as next-generation networks and voice recognition by the end of this year for 360 million won,’’ said the ministry official, who declined to be named.

“Under the contract, KT can refuse to pay the promised money, if Samcholli fails to meet pre-set requirements by the operator,’’ he added.

However, the two sides could not reach an agreement on the pilot run of value-added processing this year with a pair of telecom items _ polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and splitters _ for some reason.

They initially planned to ink a deal on the test run of the value-added processing, under which KT will provide raw materials while Samcholli will crank out final products in return for commission.